Wasted Away
by DarkFlameOfTheMonkey
Summary: All those years in the Zone had to amount to something... Otherwise he was a wasted man. Another Alchemist centred fic. R&R!


**A/N: Another random thing. I've been getting a lot of those these days.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own SRMTHFG. Simple, but tragic.**

Wasted Away

His small group of friends thought he was crazy. A nice guy, but crazy.

The city called him a lunatic. Respected him, yes, maybe even feared him. But he was classed as a madman.

He spent his days in the wilds of Shuggazoom. Another thing that was considered insane. People, _everyone_ thought he was wasting his life out there, beyond where they themselves could reach. He dabbled in magic and played around with science. Experimental scientific advance, the city could understand well enough. But _magic_... And powers, unseen forces that could wreak untold havoc upon innocent souls at any moment!

'Magic' was not a word spoken in the lives of normal people often.

They thought he was wasting his life. You only live for a certain amount of time in this universe, and he was already more than halfway to the end. That's what the planet's statistics said. They thought he was wasting his time.

He knew. He definitely knew about that, even if they thought he was ignorant to it.

He knew full well how precious time could be.

But he had a goal. He had to fulfil it. No one could understand that. No one in the universe knew what it was like to know precisely how much time you had left by closing your eyes and simply _knowing,_ inside of you. For it _was_ inside of him. And yet he always felt uneasy, he could not ever be sure whether he really _did_ have that long. He couldn't fix it by redoing calculations, for there were none. He could only wonder if his perception had been tainted, or if whatever it was that was happening to him was playing with his mind, fooling him into thinking false thoughts. All the better to crush him later.

He himself sometimes had to doubt his work. Surely the idea of animal cyborgs would appear to the city as a simple project, a little assignment to spend his time and let his hands work on for a while?

Will they even work for the purpose he had in mind?

If they did not, then at least he would have some companions to end his days with.

But no, he had to hope that they would not be wasted.

The people were right, in a way. If they would not work, then his precious time was wasted, the remainder of his life when he could still see in light without thinking harsh thoughts about whatever it was that he saw, when his life was still half-pure and not wholly polluted, was gone. And those things could not be retrieved once passed.

They had to work. Otherwise he was a wasted man.

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_That beautiful, elaborate structure where he had spent his last days._ He was leaving it at last. Leaving the home nestled among the wild growth, untamed by civilisation.

_The vehicle, the weapon, the home that stood next to his._ That would be away from human eyes for a while too. It would soon be a shell to house his creations. After that it would become more than a home.

His thoughts drew him back to his laboratory. The Super Robot was the future. He could wonder about that in his last night of sleep. But the past, that was what he would dwell on today, as the sunlight could dance on his hands, and he would not flinch in anger or revulsion.

It was sad to think of what would happen to his place. It had grown so familiar to him over the years. His place of work, his place of rest. His personal oasis in which he had everything he needed. Tools for work, and a family to appreciate.

This was where he had made his creations, little marvels... No, 'made' and 'created' sounded too strong for the appropriate words. He did not really shape them instantly out of atoms. He'd just...helped them along.

_This was where he had given life to his robot monkeys._

Not perfect, but close enough.

There would still be those that would shake their heads, when the time came when they would know everything. They would say that a noble man had wasted his last days on something that he would not see to come to use, nor would anyone else.

In answer he could only think to himself, alone in the shadows of his upcoming despair.

No, he didn't think he was wasted.

**It got into my head quite suddenly. I was thinking about The Savage Lands, and... Zone of _Wasted Years._****I know that the Alchemist had Captain Shuggazoom around, but it didn't sound hopeless enough for me. Cruel, I know. But I love the Alchemist anyway. R&R!**


End file.
